Commercial processing of a slaughtered animal such as poultry involves a number of steps often starting from stunning and killing the animal and ending with, inter alia, cutting the cleaned carcass into parts suitable for cooking and further processing, or with preserving the whole carcass for cooking. The processing steps in commercial processing operations in many countries are subject to governmental regulation and on-site inspection for health and sanitary purposes.
These processing steps are typically completed by different automated machines located adjacent a conveyor that moves the animals or parts thereof among various machines stationed throughout the plant. Space within processing plants is highly valuable. The automated machinery thus typically comprises a rotating and circular processor that holds multiple stations. Each station performs a single type of operation on a single animal or part thereof that the conveyor carries alongside the outer circumference of the rotating processor. Different processors perform different tasks (e.g., removing the vent, opening, eviscerating, etc.). By making the processors rotary to match the conveyor speed and generally circular, such operations can be completed in less plant space. That is, using a portion (generally around 180.degree.) of the processor's circumference takes up less linear meters (and thus less plant space) than doing the same operations in a linear fashion.
In present processing lines, different processors, such as a venting processor and an opening processor are separated from each other. Animals or parts thereof are moved between two rotary processors by a conveyor, in general, an overhead conveyor that typically first carries the animal or part thereof to a first processor, then to a second processor and then on to further processing. While this traditional layout of separate processors provides a relatively easy configuration to manage, it takes up substantial valuable plant space.
In International Patent Application No. 96/16553 a processing line is disclosed in which a meandering conveyor line passes along a plurality of stand-alone processors. A portion of 180 degrees of each processor's circumference is used for performing the respective operations therein. This layout necessitates additional structures to handle the forces generated on the conveyor line and the processors.
The traditional layout of separate processors also inordinately consumes other natural resources. During processing, the process line and the animals or parts thereof are given "CIP" treatment, which refers to Clean In Place systems that spray a cleaning fluid upon the animals or parts thereof and the operating elements of each rotary processor in the processing line in order to remove contamination and animal particles. Each processor must be covered to prevent fluid from escaping into the general plant. Washing each animal or part thereof and each processor thoroughly requires a significant amount of water or cleaning fluid, which not only increases the cost of processing, but raises environmental concerns about water usage and treatment of waste water as well.
Moreover, separating of the processors requires more material to construct at least because it takes additional structure to couple the machines via a conveyor.
The traditional separation of processors also invites unwanted tampering or interference from plant employees. Indeed, because conventional processors sometimes miss a required operation, plants have typically assigned a back up employee between processors to monitor and correct results of at least a number of processors. Such a plant employee may damage or modify the conveyor line that carries the animals or parts thereof from a stand-alone first processor to a stand-alone second processor, even if inadvertently, when attempting to perform or adjust the operation the processor was supposed to perform, but did not do correctly. Moreover, an employee attempting to fix the problem may actually make it worse, e.g., if the employee removes a piece of vent from a carcass and the remainder falls back into the carcass, which can lead to fecal contamination of the carcass before it reaches an opening processor.
In short, there remains a need for effective mechanisms and methods that will perform processing operations on slaughtered animals with reduced cost, less resources, especially plant space and water, less human intervention, and increased operational capacity and efficiency.
USDA standards have long urged the meat processing industry to remove or eliminate fecal contamination from slaughtered animals, such as poultry, hogs, or the like. U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,421 describes a method and device for removing fecal material by inserting a hollow probe into the vent before venting and eviscerating the slaughtered animal. The probe has slots near its open end and ports located on the upper side of the probe. Vacuum sucks the fecal material through the slots and ports into the probe and out of the slaughtered animal. The slots prevent the rectal cavity or gut from collapsing around the probe upon activation of the vacuum. Intermittent vacuum also helps prevent collapsing of the gut. A water wash cleans the probe and may also be used to help loosen the fecal material.
The known apparatus for removing fecal material is entirely separate from other equipment that processes slaughtered animals. Such separate apparatus is expensive and not favored by poultry and other slaughtered animal processors, who understandably desire to minimize capital expenditure on processing equipment. Other problems existed with the known device in practice. For example, the vacuum caused the gut to be sucked into the ports, thereby clogging it. The ports used with the known device also were insufficient to remove sufficient fecal and other unwanted material. The expectation was that fecal material would ooze around the probe and into the ports. In practice, dense fecal material or undigested feed or the like often prevented the pin from penetrating sufficiently and certainly did not ooze into the ports for removal. Moreover, the dense material tends to be displaced by the insertion of vent removal means, in particular a centering pin or the like thereof, which may often rupture the gut of the carcass. Ruptured guts allow the fecal and other material to escape to other internal organs and contaminate the internal portion of the carcass.
Present processing lines generally lack cost and production efficient equipment for ensuring removal of fecal material, however, and instead simply remove the vent of the carcass. This is typically done by a rotary processor with multiple stations, each of which is configured to remove the vent from a carcass brought temporarily into registration with that station. This processor is often called a venting processor by persons skilled in this art.
Some machines, such as one marketed by Simon-Johnson, exist that use vacuum to help hold the vent for cutting. U.K. Patent No. 2147190 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,303 apparently disclose such machines. The Simon-Johnson machine provides vacuum via port holes located on the side of a pin that inserts into the vent of a slaughtered poultry carcass to so hold the vent. As a byproduct of using vacuum, this removes some fecal material, but almost immediately the suction pulls the sides of the gut into the ports, thereby performing the primary goal of the device, which is to better hold the vent for cutting. But once the ports are closed off and holding the vent, fecal material cannot enter the ports. Further, a lack of penetration into the vent by the pin--which moves into the gut only perhaps 2.5 cm or so in larger poultry carcasses--prevents adequate removal of fecal material.
Other devices also exist that attempt to minimize fecal contamination. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,304 discloses a shroud that surrounds a vent cutting blade during its cutting operation, thereby preventing fecal material or the like from splattering upon the carcass during cutting. Further, the processing industry has long used water washing devices continuously to wash carcasses as they travel through the processing line. These and other devices, however, merely address the symptoms of fecal contamination by partially removing only the visible contamination instead of actually eliminating the source.
Public scrutiny of meat processing procedures is increasing. For instance, new USDA regulations mandate zero tolerance of fecal material once poultry or the like reach the chilling device located at the end of the processing line. Failure to comply may result in removal of the carcass from the processing line for disposal. However, use of prior devices like those described above or the more common water washers used throughout the processing lines will not alone remove all the fecal material.
Accordingly, there remains a need for effective mechanisms and methods that will fully remove fecal and other unwanted material from slaughtered animals during processing.
In a traditional venting processor, the carcass to be vented is externally fixed by positioning means relative to the path of the venting mechanism during the operation of the latter. Each element of the venting mechanism follows a predetermined path relative to the positioning means, and thus relative to the carcass. Different carcasses may, however, have different sizes and different positions of the vent, resulting in an unacceptably high percentage of defective venting operations in the prior art venting processors.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a venting processor which will reliably perform venting operations on carcasses of different shapes and sizes having different vent positions.